The patterns in the country's shallow coastal waters are created by silt that's been carried by the Geba River and other streams into the Atlantic Ocean. However, this isn't what the country looks like to the naked eye in outer space. Instead, the color-coded image was produced using infrared, red, and blue filters to bring out details in the silt. This online tutorial explains more about the trippy color scheme.

This picture of Guinea-Bissau serves as one of the final visual treats in our Cosmic Log Space Advent Calendar. For additional views of Earth from space, check out these past offerings. We've also included links to other online Advent calendars that have been serving up space images daily since the beginning of the month: